Victor Oladipo admits he was not fully healthy when he returned for Pacers

Victor Oladipo was struggling to regain his rhythm before the NBA season was suspended, and now he admits that he was not quite 100 percent on the court.

In an interview this week with Michael Lee of The Athletic, the Indiana Pacers guard discussed the challenges of returning from his ruptured quad tendon.

“I had a great game. I played well,” Oladipo said of a 27-point outing against Boston in Indiana’s last game prior to the suspension of play in March. “But I’d be lying if I said I was even 80 percent out there.

“I kind of just jumped right in, right in the middle of the year. It was different for me,” he added. “But now I get a chance to kind of reset, restart.”

Oladipo, the two-time All-Star, suffered the quad tear in Jan. 2019. He returned to the court over a full calendar year later and only managed an output of 13.8 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.0 assists a game in 13 appearances.

The Pacers were the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference at the time of the shutdown, so hopefully Oladipo will still have a chance to salvage his 2019-20 campaign somewhat. Quad tears are a very tricky injury to come back from though, as one fellow NBA star can attest to.